A young girl died on Saturday after being shot by a stray bullet while playing with her family members.
11-year-old Saniyah Pugh was staying at her grandmother’s house in Detroit when a stray bullet ripped through the home and struck the girl in her back.
According to the reports, Saniyah was playing with four other children inside her grandmother’s home at the time of the shooting.
By the time the paramedics arrived at the scene, the girl had already died and there was nothing they could do to save her.
The police have since arrested two people, including one minor, in connection to the shooting. As of this writing, it remains unclear who they are and whether they are prime suspects.
Following the tragic death, the 11-year-old’s grieving grandmother has spoken out and paid a tribute to the young gymnast and cheerleader who attended Washington Carver Academy.
“Saniyah was a very beautiful, intelligent. She was a very talented little girl,” Lawanda Melton, Saniyah’s grandmother, expressed.
“A home used to be somewhere safe. School used to be somewhere safe. Nowadays, you’re not safe anywhere. No one’s safe.”
Melton continued: “It’s unbearable. I have a daughter who’s without her child now, who’s empty, looking in her eyes. It just looks like a empty soul. She had nothing left in her. She lost her best friend. She lost her daughter.”
Meanwhile, Sandra Turner Handy, the president of the Community Relations Council of Detroit’s 9th Precinct, called for an end to gun violence as she suggested no one is safe any longer.
“It’s time for us to stop crying all the time with the chief about our babies being shot. 11 years old. And she was doing nothing but having fun being a kid,” she said.
Our thoughts are with Saniyah’s family and friends as they grieve the loss of the young girl.
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